Thursday, December 18, 2014

At this time of year some Christians write articles saying the use of holiday and Xmas, instead of Christmas is just fine. After all, “holiday” comes from “holy day,” and the “X” is an abbreviation of the Greek name of Christ. Some say early Christians, under persecution, used the “X” as a secretive way of referring to Christ and Christianity. I disagree.

I understand “Happy Holidays” is sometimes used to include Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. However, it is also often used to be politically correct and so no one will be offended by the “Christ” in “Christmas.” It is regularly used to secularize Christmas. As a comedian said, “I’m dreaming of a secularized generic holiday.”

I also agree that some Christians can get obnoxious in arguing with store clerks about Christmas. Please use a winsome attitude in wishing someone a Merry Christmas!

I still like “Christmas” as being more understandable, meaningful, and descriptive than “Holiday” and “Xmas.”

A holiday can be as much Presidents Day or Columbus Day as Christmas. Very few would ever stop and consider, or know, that the word began as “Holy Day.” To most it just means a day off work. Holiday has become a generic term.

We may derive comfort that to a very few the X stands for Christ.

But the X seems to be just as secretive today as it may have been in the first or second centuries.

I doubt one in a hundred knows or considers, “Oh, the X in Xmas stands for Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.”

I also doubt many know much about the ancient Greek language.

Abbreviations are often not understood, so why not take the time and effort to write it out?

Many more Americans understand the name Christ, rather than understand the name “X.”

To many, “X” stands for the unknown. Others may view Xmas as X-ing out the name of Christ.

I would not recommend an evangelistic preacher to go around preaching about X. They might think you’re talking about Malcolm.

So while I may not angrily protest, I do prefer stores have the courage to actually use the word Christmas. Recently I heard the Houston mayor speak of the city “Holiday Tree.” And yes, I suspect she was trying to not offend atheists, non-Christians (who usually have no problem with using the word Christmas), and to be politically correct.

So to all I wish you a Merry Christmas!
-David R. Brumbelow, Gulf Coast Pastor, December 18, AD (In the Year of Our Lord) 2014.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Some time ago a Calvinist angrily said that there is no such thing as free will in the Bible. He was seriously wrong.

Free will is found throughout the Bible. Every time God gives a command, that command speaks to our free will. Every time Scripture says receive, repent, turn, believe, trust, have faith, call on the name of the Lord, it is speaking of man’s free will.

If man does not have free will:1. Then men are robots and puppets, doing only what they are instructed, or hard wired, to do.
2. Then God is the author of sin. Some actually openly agree with this statement.
3. Then God does not love everyone; some people God wants to go to Hell.
4. Then God is mocking man, who has no ability to choose, when He commands him to choose, repent, believe, accept.

Without free will, this world becomes a fatalistic puppet show.

I recently told a fellow pastor of how two strong Calvinists had now become atheists. The pastor replied, “There’s not much difference between the two.” I would not go that far, but some have noticed the similarity between hard determinism (man has no free will) and atheistic fatalism. As Kenneth Keathley, author of “Salvation and Sovereignty,” said, “Most determinists are not Calvinists, but atheists and Muslims.”

A few quotes on free will:
“I just happen to believe that God is sovereign enough that He can make a man totally free if He wishes to do so.” -Paige Patterson, president, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX, SBC president.

“Now, if you say that only certain people are elect and only certain people, therefore, can be saved, you take all the ‘whosever’s’ in the Bible and make them a lot of mumbo jumbo. The Bible is full of ‘whosoever will.’”
On Matthew 23:37, “Now, friend, if they could not rather than they would not, this is the biggest charade in history. Jesus is weeping salty tears, and He said, ‘I would, but you would not.’ That’s not unconditional election.”
-Adrian Rogers, SBC president and pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, TN.

“Indeed, it is manifest that every call, every threat, every expostulation, every exhortation in the Bible supposes that man is a free agent. If he be not free, if he be the passive victim of inexorable, irresistible destiny, the Sacred Volume is a compilation of glaring inconsistencies--of sheer downright falsehood and mockery...
If we attempt to explain and reconcile the doctrines of predestination and free agency, we find impassable barriers hemming us in, and sharp adamant striking us back. Their harmony we must leave with God.”
-Richard Fuller, Predestination; 1885. Quoted by Peter Lumpkins at SBCTommorrow. Fuller was president of the SBC. He was a strong Calvinist who also believed in the free will of man.

“And yet, and yet, with us down here in this world, there's no violation of our moral integrity, or our free choice, or the sovereignty of our own lives. The two go together. The great decree of Almighty God leaves me absolutely and perfectly free. I am not bound; I am at liberty. The decree of God has in it my own free choice, and the two are not antagonistic. They go together in the will of God.”
-W. A. Criswell, SBC president, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, TX.

“Reasons that make free will important:
* Without free will, how can we be truly responsible for our actions?
* Without free will, what truth is there in words of praise for another’s efforts, courage or creativity? If the person is simply reacting chemically and has no choice in his or her actions, then such praise is meaningless.
* Without free will, we cannot have any measure of dignity over any other aspect of nature. There is nothing special about being just another cog in a machine.
* Without free will, what value is there to the love we have for another? Similarly, what value is there in friendship? Love is simply one set of chemical reactions to another’s chemical reactions.”
“Scripture has revealed that people are bearers of God’s image. God did not make us mere machines. We have the ability to choose that makes us morally responsible.”
-W. Mark Lanier, Christianity on Trial, IVP; 2014.

Southern Baptist Pastor

Serving the Lord on the upper Gulf Coast of Texas.
Author of The Wit & Wisdom of Pastor Joe Brumbelow, Hannibal Books; and Ancient Wine and the Bible, Free Church Press.
See Article, "About Gulf Coast Pastor" for more information.